Monday, May 30, 2011

B2B Homepage Animation: Flash Is Dead, Blame the iPad

Observe: this is not a comment on Flash's good quality, usability or usefulness. And this submit is not all around app growth or web sites purposely created fully inside of Flash.

This is a comment on latest perceptions close to Flash and how it relates to on the web advertising and marketing web sites.

B2B individuals specially really don't want Flash for their homepage animations any longer. And right here are the leading 4 factors I\'m hearing inside my conversations with company proprietors and on the web entrepreneurs:

Cause #one - ipad. Browser compatibility on the ipad and smartphones is leading of thoughts of B2B entrepreneurs.

Cause #2 - "Flashiness." Customers have observed also numerous "flashy" or excessively long, elaborate and sluggish animations.

Cause #three - Search engine optimization. Google doesn\'t index content material within Flash files.

Explanation #four - HTML five, AJAX/Jquery are "cool," Flash is "old" and "uncool." When center-aged executives of point out HTML five and say "no Flash," you know there is modify within the wind.

Homepage Animations

Animations on advertising and marketing internet site homep ages are the real situation right here. For decades, designers have been constructing, and Customers have been asking for, some kind of animation on homepages. These animations, and the content material inside of them, are intended to speedily present a viewer what the business or merchandise is all close to, considering that they get viewers' focus.

And given that the features inside these animations is extremely restricted (generally just motion, linking and perhaps CMS integration), Flash is no extended needed to make them function.

The four Factors and What They Imply

#one - Flash doesn\'t play on the ipad.

The ipad is extremely well-liked amongst individuals inside the higher-tech company-to-company market, so the individuals I speak to may be much more worried close to the ipad than individuals within other industries. And quite, they're only involved around the major animation on homepages. Video clip and other Flash-centered page factors aren\'t as massive a worry - nevertheless (it's possible considering that there are so numerous site-distinct apps... which defeats the total purpose of browsers... really don't grab me st arted).

#2 - "Flashiness."

This Explanation has practically nothing to do with Flash alone, nevertheless is somewhat the consequence of design and content material troubles. Some firms really like obtaining long, elaborate animations on their homepages. Some individuals detest them. Within any occasion, the messenger (Flash inside of this situation) is blamed.

#three - Search engine optimization.

It is genuine that Google does index the subject material within Flash files that seem embedded inside homepages. Yet, it doesn\'t do a fantastic task at it and you can\'t grab the exact same worth as you would with HTML text, for numerous factors. Nevertheless, pages with Flash embedded quite aren\'t penalized unless of course the Flash slows down the page load time (which is a excellent Purpose to maintain any homepage animation brief and sweet - see #2 over). On the other hand, except if non-Flash homepage animations use the alt-tag (which numerous really don't for design good reasons - some individuals do not like how it seems to be when the text seems to be on mouseover) or incorporate real HTML text, they are not attaining any gain by not employing Flash.

#four - Flash "uncool;" AJAX /HTML five/Jquery "cool."

When you have Google, Firefox and Apple all behind HTML five, It is challenging for Adobe to battle back again (despite the fact that Google even now supports Flash instead impressively on YouTube, and most pro designers use Adobe merchandise on their Mac PCs - go figure).

Too, I assume there are deeper and far more profound good reasons behind how swiftly folks began reacting negatively to Flash. Initial, I assume that most folks don\'t like the concept of plugins, and don\'t want to have to depend on 1 to make their advertising and marketing site operate correctly. And I assume there's a fundamental knowing by on the web entrepreneurs that the subject material inside homepage animations is not price the trouble of downloading a plugin. (A Video clip of a canine enjoying a piano, yet, is a various tale! Folks will do nearly anything to see that.)

2nd, on the internet entrepreneurs and developers don\'t like proprietary application and gamers, and the concept of an "open source" Video clip codec and support is quite desirable, specially if it guarantees to play across all browsers and running programs.

Properly, we'll see if that ever arrives to pass.

Whichever the real Explanation, pro on-line entrepreneurs and consultants are dissing Flash and praising Jquery - almost certainly devoid of knowing the underlying problems all around Video clip codecs and < Video clip > support at all.

Last Mind All around Flash & ipad

Is Apple attempting to destroy Flash? Is Flash as terrible as Apple says? I\'m remaining out of that argument. Yet, for much better or even worse, Flash has an picture situation that could never go absent.

Observe: Sure, Indeed, I know - the Workbox site even now has Flash on its homepage... cobbler's footwear.

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